The Paper | 526 questionnaires: How much do the public know about digital RMB and how accepting are they?

Source: The Paper

Reporter: Ye Yinghe

Original title: "526 questionnaires: How much do people know about digital RMB and how much will they accept it"

As tens of thousands of people in Shenzhen, Suzhou and other places participated in the digital RMB red envelope test, the discussion about the digital RMB continued to heat up. When experts and scholars talked about the digital RMB and continued to expand the boundaries of imagination, there might be a question: How much do ordinary people know about the digital RMB? How do they view the digital RMB?

In order to further understand the general public's perception and acceptance of the digital RMB, The Paper designed a questionnaire and distributed it through the Internet, collecting a total of 526 valid questionnaires, of which 55.89% were female and 44.11% were male. It should be noted that among the respondents of this questionnaire, those with a bachelor's degree and a master's degree or above accounted for 30.04% and 24.71% respectively, which is higher than the national level.

From these 526 questionnaires, we may be able to get a glimpse of the general public's understanding of the digital RMB.

Nearly 30% of respondents believe that digital RMB is "another form of Alipay or WeChat Pay"

According to the definition given by Mu Changchun, director of the Digital Research Institute of the People's Bank of China, the digital RMB (DC/EP) refers to a legal currency in digital form issued by the People's Bank of China, operated by designated operating institutions (Editor's note: currently the six major state-owned banks) and exchanged to the public. It is based on a broad account system, supports loose coupling of bank accounts, is equivalent to banknotes and coins , has value characteristics and legal tender, and supports controllable anonymity.

Questionnaire data shows that 51.52% of respondents chose that digital RMB is "digital cash with a certain degree of anonymity", which is consistent with the official definition. 29.85% of respondents believed that digital RMB is "another form of Alipay or WeChat Pay", and 17.87% of respondents did not know what digital RMB is.

Mu Changchun once said at the second Bund Financial Summit that WeChat, Alipay and digital RMB are not on the same dimension. WeChat and Alipay are financial infrastructure and wallets, while digital RMB is a payment tool and the content of the wallet. In the electronic payment scenario, WeChat and Alipay wallets are filled with commercial bank deposit currency. After the issuance of digital RMB, everyone can still use WeChat and Alipay for payment, but the content of the wallet has been increased by the central bank currency. At the same time, the commercial banks of Tencent and Ant are also operating institutions, so there is no competition with the digital RMB.

Judging from the current pilot situation, the designated institutions are currently only the six state-owned banks, that is, users can choose the digital RMB wallets provided by the six banks, and they will provide services for exchanging digital RMB.

Figure 1 Respondents’ understanding of the concept of digital RMB

If divided by gender, men seem to know more about digital RMB.

Among 526 questionnaires, the proportion of men who chose "digital cash has a certain degree of anonymity" (64.2%) was significantly higher than that of women (41.5%). The proportion of women who chose not to understand digital RMB (23.8%) was also higher than that of men (10.3%). The proportion of women who thought that digital RMB was "another form of Alipay or WeChat Pay" was also higher.

Figure 2: Understanding of the concept of digital RMB by respondents of different genders

The respondents' understanding of the digital RMB is highly correlated with their education level. The higher the education level, the fewer people are unaware of the digital RMB. The proportion of respondents with primary school education or below who do not know about the digital RMB is as high as 75%, while among those with a master's degree or above, the proportion of respondents who believe that the digital RMB is "digital cash with a certain degree of anonymity" is as high as 68.5%.

Figure 3: Understanding of the concept of digital RMB among respondents with different educational backgrounds

Nearly 60% of respondents did not know that digital RMB has the advantage of "dual offline payment"

Compared with existing payment tools, one of the biggest advantages and features of the digital RMB is "dual offline payment", that is, both parties can pay without an Internet connection. However, more than half of the respondents were unaware of this advantage, accounting for 59.7%.

Figure 4: Respondents’ understanding of the “offline payment” function of digital RMB

Among them, 54.7% of men know this function, while 71.1% of women do not know that digital RMB can be used for "offline payment".

Figure 5: Understanding of the “offline payment” function of digital RMB by respondents of different genders

The proportion of respondents who know that digital RMB can be used for "offline payment" also increases with the increase in educational level. 56.2% of respondents with a master's degree or above know that digital RMB can be used for "offline payment", while 75% of respondents with primary school education or below do not know.

Figure 6: Respondents with different educational backgrounds’ understanding of the “offline payment” function of the digital RMB

In addition, among the respondents who knew that the digital RMB has an "offline payment" function, 69.3% believed that the digital RMB is "digital cash with a certain degree of anonymity", while this proportion was only 39.5% among the respondents who did not know.

Figure 7: Respondents’ understanding of the concept of digital RMB and whether they know the “offline payment” function of digital RMB

More than half of the respondents believe that the digital RMB was launched to keep up with the trend of the times, and 24% believe that it was launched to break the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat.

Since the establishment of the central bank digital currency research team in 2014, China's central bank digital currency has gone through six years, from concept to pilot, from theory to practice. The recent high-profile Suzhou Double 12 digital RMB red envelope pilot has added to the sense of impendingness.

Why launch digital RMB?

Among the four options given by The Paper (see Figure 8 for details), 51% of the respondents believed that the promotion of the digital RMB is to keep up with the development trend of the times.

In Suzhou, a clerk at a delicatessen told The Paper: "As for the government and banks, they must also follow the trend of the times and make some adjustments to keep up with the progress of the times. It is impossible to always use credit cards, and cash is becoming less common now."

The proportions of those who chose "breaking the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat" and "resisting cross-border digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Libra" were relatively close, at 24% and 23% respectively.

Figure 8 Respondents’ understanding of the reasons for launching the digital RMB

Previously, some experts also pointed out to The Paper that the reason for promoting the digital RMB is related to "breaking the monopoly of Alipay and WeChat."

Sun Yang, a researcher at Suning Financial Research Institute, told The Paper, “From the perspective of substance and patents, the purpose is to completely reshuffle the payment market.”

Wang Zhicheng, associate professor of finance at the Guanghua School of Management at Peking University, told The Paper that new Internet companies have taken advantage of their technology to occupy the payment market, and large state-owned banks have also been trying to enter the market in recent years, but the results have not been obvious due to user habits. "What we have found is the digital currency method, and antitrust is a boost."

He also believes that the promotion of digital RMB has international and domestic motivations, with international motivation being the primary one and domestic motivation being secondary. The international motivation is that once Libra is launched, it may have a great erosion effect on the legal currencies of other countries.

Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency based on cryptography and a decentralized transmission model that relies on blockchain technology. It was created in 2009 by the Bitcoin founder, who goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Libra is a borderless digital currency that is planned to be launched by a management association led by the social giant Facebook.

From the perspective of age, the younger the age, the higher the proportion of people who choose to "resist cross-border digital currencies such as Bitcoin and Libra."

55% of respondents believe that the digital RMB will be launched within 1-3 years

Faced with the "imminent" digital RMB, the public has strong confidence. 55.13% of the respondents believe that the digital RMB will be launched within 1-3 years, 20.72% of the respondents believe that it will be launched within 3-5 years, and 14.64% of the respondents believe that the digital RMB will be launched within a year.

Figure 9 Respondents’ predictions on the launch time of digital RMB

"If it works, it will not last long. For example, if it can be tried in Suzhou, it will definitely not be kept at the bottom of the box." During a visit to the Suzhou digital RMB red envelope pilot project, Ms. Li, a Suzhou citizen, told the reporter from The Paper.

In terms of age, people aged 45-55 are most confident that the digital RMB will be launched in a short period of time, with 81.7% believing that it will be launched within 3 years. Respondents aged 55 and above are the most conservative, with only 54.2% believing that it will be launched within 3 years.

Figure 10 Predictions of respondents of different ages on the launch time of digital RMB

Although they have never used digital RMB, nearly half of the respondents believe that the experience should be similar to that of Alipay and WeChat.

Mu Changchun pointed out that WeChat, Alipay and digital RMB are not on the same dimension. WeChat and Alipay are financial infrastructure and wallets, while digital RMB is a payment tool and the content of the wallet.

Despite this, the emergence of digital RMB wallets may have an impact on the “two-divided” payment system.

The results of the questionnaire show that most respondents have not tried the digital RMB. Those who have not used the digital RMB but guess that its experience is similar to that of Alipay and WeChat Pay account for 49.24%, almost half . Only 11.59% of the respondents have used the digital RMB, of which 40.98% believe that "there is no difference in the experience of digital RMB payment and WeChat Pay and Alipay", and 40.98% believe that "Alipay and WeChat Pay are easier to use".

Figure 11 Respondents’ perception of the use of digital RMB compared with Alipay and WeChat Pay

In terms of age, respondents under 25 who "have never used digital RMB, but think it should be similar" accounted for the highest proportion, while this proportion was only 16.7% for those over 55. It is worth noting that respondents over 55 who "have never used digital RMB, but think it is easier to use" accounted for as high as 41.7%, far higher than other age groups.

Figure 12: Respondents of different ages’ perception of the use of digital RMB compared with Alipay and WeChat Pay

More than 70% of respondents have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay

In the use of the Internet, "privacy and security issues" are always of great concern. The survey results show that 71.43% of the respondents have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay.

Figure 13 Respondents’ privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay

According to the questionnaire data, people aged 45-55 attach the most importance to privacy and security. 83.7% of them have privacy concerns when using Alipay and WeChat Pay. Those under 25 years old account for the smallest proportion, at 61%.

Figure 14: Privacy concerns of respondents of different ages when using Alipay and WeChat Pay

As for the digital RMB, its feature is "controllable anonymity", which means it has a certain degree of anonymity. Regarding this feature, 44.57% of the respondents chose to believe it, 40.38% of the respondents were not clear about this feature, and 15.05% of the respondents chose not to believe it.

A bank employee told The Paper: "How can it be anonymous? Whoever is in control has super powers."

Figure 15: Respondents’ belief in the “controllable anonymity” of the digital RMB

The older the age, the higher the proportion of respondents who believe that the digital RMB can be controlled and anonymous. The proportion of those aged 55 and above who believe that it can be controlled and anonymous is as high as 83.3%.

Figure 16: The degree of belief of respondents of different ages in the “controllable anonymity” of the digital RMB

In terms of educational background, among those with a master's degree or above, the proportion of people who do not believe that the digital RMB can be controllable and anonymous is the highest, reaching 33.8%, while the number of respondents with an elementary school education or below who chose this option is 0.

Figure 17: The degree of belief of respondents with different educational backgrounds in the “controllable anonymity” of the digital RMB

More than 42% of respondents said they would use digital RMB wallets, Alipay, WeChat and other payment methods at the same time

If the digital RMB is launched, consumers may face the dilemma of choosing between digital RMB payment or Alipay or WeChat payment. 42.59% of the respondents said they would use these payment methods at the same time, 26.05% of the respondents thought it depends on the situation, 24.33% of the respondents chose to use digital RMB wallets instead of Alipay and WeChat payment, and only 7.03% of the respondents clearly would not use digital RMB wallets to replace Alipay and WeChat payment.

Figure 18 Respondents’ willingness to use digital RMB wallets in the future

Judging from the questionnaire results, older people are significantly more willing to use digital RMB than younger people. The proportion of respondents aged 55 and above who chose to "use digital RMB instead of Alipay and WeChat Pay" is as high as 37.5%, while this proportion is only 7.3% among people under 25 years old.

However, during the on-site street interviews conducted by The Paper, several interviewees believed that young people would accept the digital RMB faster. A 58-year-old Suzhou taxi driver told The Paper: "I am old now, and I don't understand this kind of thing. I didn't use Alipay or WeChat before, but now everyone pays for it when they take a taxi, so I can't use it. Young people try it, but old people don't."

Figure 19: Willingness of respondents of different ages to use digital RMB wallets in the future

Among those with a master's degree or above, the highest proportion of respondents who chose "simultaneous use" was 45.4%, while this proportion was only 25% among those with primary school education or below. It is worth noting that the proportion of respondents who chose "will not use digital RMB wallets instead of Alipay and WeChat Pay" was also the highest among those with a master's degree or above, reaching 14.6%.

Figure 20: Willingness of respondents with different educational backgrounds to use digital RMB wallets in the future